I cover AI and future trends for a living. One overreaching theme I've noticed is how AI is being used not to augment people, but to weaponize their data against them. This is going to be a long read, and it's because I feel a bit passionate about this topic. The debate over free-speech this week related to the Hong Kong protests signals no trade war resolution will take place since a cold tech war also is about information wars and basic freedom of speech. As companies with billion-dollar market caps like Microsoft, Apple and Google cave into creating censorship products, we all lose and begin to enter a potential data-based Neo-Fascism era of control and surveillance.

Fox News Flash top headlines for Oct. 8 are here. Check out what's clicking on FoxNews.com The maker of Fortnite may face a class-action lawsuit in Canada after two parents of teenage sons alleged last week the company purposely designed the multiplayer video game to be as addictive as cocaine, according to reports. The Montreal-based law firm, Calex Légal, filed a motion in Quebec Superior Court Thursday on behalf of two parents who approached the firm separately about their 10- and 15-year-old sons, who they claim developed a severe dependence on the game, USA Today reported. The suit, which has yet to be approved by the court, seeks to hold the U.S.-based video game publisher Epic Games Inc., as well as its Canadian affiliate based in British Columbia, accountable for using psychologists and statisticians "to develop the most addictive game possible."

In aviation, the black box is a source of knowledge: a receptacle of crucial data that might help investigators understand catastrophe. In technology, a black box is the absence of knowledge: a catchall term describing an algorithmic system with mechanics its creators can't--or won't--explain. Algorithms, in this telling, are unknowable, uncontrollable, and independent of human oversight, even as they promote extremist content, make decisions affecting our health, or act in potential violation of antitrust law. In investigative reports and international courts, Amazon, Google, and other tech platforms have been accused of tweaking their search algorithms to boost their own profits and sidestep antitrust regulations. Each company denies interfering with its respective search algorithm, and because of the murky mechanics of how search works, proving the allegations is nearly impossible.

The world is getting smaller. Transportation routes are getting faster, storage times shorter. Resources are available anytime, anywhere. The worldwide trade knows no bounds, and it comes in many shapes and forms. In the future, intelligent international trading companies will shift from focusing on transactions and wares to the interaction with customers and suppliers.

But for the first time in history, the financial community now has the resources and ability to leverage AI processes to keep up and even stay one step ahead of illicit actors. The screening technology available today allows institutions to aggregate relevant information from throughout the world and pinpoint potential red flags with fewer false positives than ever before, providing a quicker and more accurate profile of a firm's existing and potential customers. And, traditional financial institutions as well as new-generation fintechs are working to collaborate with regulators in real time more than at any point in history.

If you live in Houston, your next Domino's pizza delivery may be by an unmanned vehicle. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to not hear Domino's petition on whether its website is accessible to the disabled is considered a loss for the pizza giant and a win for disability advocates. The case was one of a long list of those the Supreme Court announced it wouldn't hear, and as is usual the high court made no comment in declining to take the case. Monday was the Supreme Court's first day of arguments after its summer break. The order to not hear the case keeps in place a January ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that Domino's and other retailers must make its online services accessible.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the way the legal industry works. This technology is helping corporate legal departments, law firms, and insurance claim departments drive operational efficiencies, reduce costs and improve claims processing and litigation outcomes. One area that's prime for immediate improvement is the legal bill review process. Bill review remains relatively foundational for many – it can rely too much on human intervention and be time-consuming, inefficient, and error-prone. Plus, it cuts into the time attorneys have to drive business value, not just legal value.

AI in the legal industry is steadily enhancing legal processes and activities of all sorts. Applications ranging from billable time invoice generation, intelligent patent searches, augmenting legal research, or chatbots the legal field is using AI in a variety of ways. In this infographic from Cognilytica we explore 8 ways AI is helping in the legal industry.

"Let's not use society as a test-bed for technologies that we're not sure yet how they're going to change society," warned Carly Kind, director at the Ada Lovelace Institute, an artificial intelligence (AI) research body based in the U.K. "Let's try to think through some of these issues -- move slower and fix things, rather than move fast and break things." Kind was speaking as part of a recent panel discussion at Digital Frontrunners, a conference in Copenhagen that focused on the impact of AI and other next-gen technologies on society. The "move fast and break things" ethos embodied by Facebook's rise to internet dominance is one that has been borrowed by many a Silicon Valley startup: develop and swiftly ship an MVP (minimal viable product), iterate, learn from mistakes, and repeat. These principles are relatively harmless when it comes to developing a photo-sharing app, social network, or mobile messaging service, but in the 15 years since Facebook came to the fore, the technology industry has evolved into a very different beast. Large-scale data breaches are a near-daily occurrence, data-harvesting on an industrial level is threatening democracies, and artificial intelligence (AI) is now permeating just about every facet of society -- often to humans' chagrin.

To gain an understanding of the outlook towards AI in India, PwC conducted a comprehensive global survey between May and September 2019 eliciting nearly 1,000 responses from CXOs and decision makers from India and other regions. The respondents spanned across industries such as technology, media and telecom, financial services, professional services, health, industrial products, consumer markets, government, and utilities. The survey also included respondents across various business functions such as IT, finance, operations, marketing, customer service, sales, human resources, legal, risk and compliance.